July 20, 2010

In the Kitchen: Buffalo Style Sloppy Joe

If you have a buffalo wing obsession like me, you are going to really appreciate this recipe. If not, you may wonder why I made a sloppy joe! I had a craving for buffalo wings yesterday and knew fried chicken was probably not the smartest way to go. So I scoured foodnetwork.com and came up with buffalo flavored sloppy joe's using Frank's sauce (my favorite!)

I have never in my life made sloppy joe's and they weren't a meal that was in our family dinner line ups as a child, but this version sounded delicious. The recipe has a five star rating on foodnetwork.com so I knew it had to be a winner. I made a few modifications to the original recipe posted online, I also halved it. Here's what I came up with...

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound ground beef, chicken or turkey breast

1 carrot, peeled and chopped or grated

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 yellow onion, finely chopped

2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup hot sauce to taste (recommended: Frank's Red Hot)

1/2 cup chicken stock

4 good quality burger rolls, split and toasted

1 cup blue cheese crumbles

Blue cheese dressing to taste

Bagged broccoli or cabbage slaw

Some of the cast and crew...

Preparation:
Begin by browning the meat in a skillet. To make this healthier you could use Turkey, I had ground beef on hand, so that's what I used. While the meat is cooking prep the veggies. Chop up carrots, celery, onion and garlic. I can't say this is the healthiest thing I have ever eaten but adding in this veggies tastes great and definitely gives a healthy boost on the original sloppy joe.

When the meat is no longer pink, drain and add in veggies, garlic and season with salt and pepper. Stir together and let cook another 7-8 minutes.

While the mixture continues to cook, put together the sauce. The original recipe called for tomatoe sauce, but I didn't think that sounded all that great and I felt it had plenty of flavor without it. In a small bowl mix together vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, chicken stock and brown sugar. Pour this mixture in with the meat and veggies and stir together.

That's it! Toast a few buns and prepare everything into sandwiches. I added blue cheese crumbles to the meat mixture and also blue cheese dressing, along with a little more frank's to the top of bun. I wanted a little crunch so I threw on the broccoli slaw. Serve wings style, with carrots and celery. I thought this was delish and it satisfied my buffalo craving! I certainly don't have a big group to cook for, but this was so easy to put together, it seems like this would be a real crowd pleaser for quick family dinners.